wandering blue

Nope, a lack of planning and foresight by the organisers. Then a recipe for disaster for the organisers, who don’t receive the ticket money. A recipe for disaster for all the traders who can’t make a sale. A recipe for disaster for all the exhibitors, who receive one less platitude. Organisers of large shows have large challenges and I don’t underestimate the scale of the task. Off-site parking for any show with a peaky demand curve requires substantial resources for the peak(s), ( witness the simply vast bus fleet brought into Birmingham for the slick Commonwealth Games operation) whether they are heritage or new transport methods or the size of the parking lot. On this occasion, there simply weren’t enough, which is a shame for all involved and particularly those like Mike 84C who ultimately missed out on a decent show. Lessons will have been learnt, some of them surprising, given that MK was designed as the motor city. If they stick with this venue, and remain encumbered by the potential random clash with an MK Dons home game, then a better plan B is needed.

Couldn’t agree more. Wait for the bus service estimated well over 1 hour, so we walked 45mins to the venue. And like you, we witnessed the farcical return arrangements too. Earlier in the thread, someone disagreed with GETS being blighted by the venue, well, sorry, but today it absolutely was! Fully appreciate the issues of football timetables. It will doubtless be fine tomorrow. Memo to self, don’t go to GETS again on a football day. The staff were fine, but the bowl parking ( which I understand was full up by mid-morning) needs an ops management solution with a far larger fleet of modern busses that don’t break down and are continually staffed throughout the day. Great day, marred by something entirely foreseeable. Not the first time that a vintage bus service has let people down, why model railway shows are fixated on them is a mystery to me. WB

Hi. One quick question for the RevolutioN team please. Is it OK to put a 175 and a 180 together in the same 00 preorder, or do you want them kept separately? (I know that you usually require order separation ‘between models’ to facilitate your admin.) Looking forward to running an ATW 175 and an FGW 180 in due course! Wandering Blue.

For example, to share a(n expensive) dcc sound decoder output between two speakers in different multiple unit coaches. Roco make them, as do Kris-modell: https://krois-modell.at

68013 is now named Peter Wreford-Bush. I believe that Peter was a long-standing member of Leamington Spa station staff (?) who passed away in 2021. In a similar decent action by Chiltern, 68015 is now named Kev Helmer, who was a Birmingham Moor St driver who also passed away last year. Both naming ceremonies occurred earlier this month, photos of each can be found on Flickr.

Spoke with the Bachmann rep who was present at the display at HLJ over the weekend. He was confident that the DBSOs are on schedule to meet the arrival date currently stated on the Bachmann website, ie May/June.

Hello Simon. In a quieter moment on Saturday afternoon, I managed to get a view down the layout from behind the over bridge. Looking into the distance to see the next train coming from far away. Watching it get closer until I could hear it, on your imaginary autumn day. In O scale! Amazing. You have achieved a dream layout, whose central operating well is so large that I couldn’t catch your eye, to do what I can do here now. With a big smile, I doff my virtual cap to you sir! And hope that my small pebble, placed firmly on the positive side of the seesaw, allows you to look back with pride at the weekend. I was lucky, my stars aligned so that I could attend. I do so hope that others have the opportunity in the future. You are, quite simply, an inspiration. WB

Hi. As an alternative to model tec , if you’re in HO/00, you may also want to take a look at pre-etched sleepers from dcc concepts. They come in packs of 80, either 1.0 or 1.6mm thick, for £12.95 a pop. https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/pre-etched-sleepers-1-6mm-4mm-scale-straight-track/ This is my go to solution now in scenic areas, used in sets of 3 or 4 either side of the join. I’ve got a mix of copper clad and soldered screws for the non-scenic areas. I’ve got a fair few soldered screw joins, but would now go for a more robust length of copper clad, which I find less fiddly. WB

Neat work, as I expected!

Hello. I’ve been following and very much enjoying this thread. Can I applaud the speed and quality of your build. You’re 18 months in and I would say you are very much keeping to your 3 year anticipated timescale! I’ve achieved less in 11 years, on a layout half this size ( envious!) , but that’s family and work life for you. I wanted to ask which magician you used to wire up your helixes? Mine are only 2 tracks wide and I ensured that I wired them up as track laying proceeded. How on earth did you mange to solder the middle track of the 5 roads, with such limited headroom? Presumably you ran one or more busses up the structure somewhere? I laid mine between the tracks, to keep the headroom clear below. I use Scotchloks for bus connections, but I’m guessing yours are all soldered as that would take up less room. Good to see that you can run your stock up the helix without issues. I’m all diesel like you, but installed power-base on the uphill roads as a bit of future-proofing to potentially accommodate visiting kettles. All the best. WB

Good to see the retailer list and support for them. As a retailer based offer, I wonder if there are any ‘single’ or ‘group’ retailer exclusive editions in the pipeline? Suggestion- Accurascale don’t list all proposed 37’s on their own website (!), so if Cavalex do specific retailer exclusives, hopefully they will list where to get them! And a quick headcount of the first 22 hours of posts suggests that Colas should be seriously considered for ‘list 2’! Just sayin

At least Hornby, Bachmann or a.n.other will only have to make 1 plastic kit to suit every UK location: Make up your own mind if you like this national uniformity. Broke across the press yesterday: https://www.ribacompetitions.com/reimaginingrailwaystations/preferred.html https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/network-rail-and-riba-announce-railway-station-design-competition-winner From network rail site: Edinburgh-based architectural practice, 7N Architects, has won a competition to shape Britain’s future railways, Network Rail and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) have announced. The contest sought architects, engineers and designers from across the world to reimagine how small to medium-sized stations can improve the travel experience of the millions of passengers who use Britain’s railway. The competition attracted more than 200 entries from designers based in 34 different countries. 7N’s winning entry considers the needs of both passengers and their local communities. The station frontage includes an eye-catching clock tower, which serves a strong civic purpose as a local landmark and a natural meeting place for social activities. Beyond the station entrance, sweeping platform canopies - elegant and refined in feature - provide shelter for passengers. The modular station design can be integrated into a variety of locations that complement the local landscape. Panel members thought the winning concept had been cleverly pared back to create an open and flexible system which, with minimum component parts, would transform people’s experience of the station whilst aligning with Network Rail’s aspirations to be carbon neutral by 2050. The design cleverly incorporates the capacity to generate renewable energy to provide most of the station's power by using translucent photo-voltaic panels which provide shelter from rain and dappled shade.

On the dot matrix front, have you seen model transport graphics on eBay? I think they will make bespoke to order. https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/modeltransportgraphics

It would be worth you searching RMWeb for gradient discussions on spirals/ helixes, relevant to where your ramps will be curved. You might want to consider DCC Concepts Powerbase. Non-steam era stock generally has an easier time of it, as others have said already. WB

Hello . I've got one of these as a trial to see if they make any sense: https://www.tillig.com/eng/Produkte/produktinfo-85139.html The principle is to have overlapping chamfered cut rails in the centre of a short length of track, so that one end can be slid out up to 5mm across baseboard joints. Evidently electrical continuity therefore relies on the opposing faces on the joint; perhaps an additional pair of flexible droppers would solve that if it were problematical. The friction at the joint relies only on the plastic chairs and I can see this loosening over time. They go against the grain of soldering baseboard-edge rail ends to either copper clad or brass screws. I'm not sure they will work for me, as many of my tracks crossing baseboard edges are not straight, and although you can flex Tillig Elite track, to do so in this instance opens up the chamfered track joints. Trust the above is of use. Has anyone used these successfully, with or without Tillig Styrostone pre-ballasted underlay? Wandering Blue